Cinematic Releases: Inside Out

We may be a little late to the game, but check out our review of Inside Out.

"Look how colorful we are. They shouldhave called this movie Pixar's Pride!!!"

From Toy Story's debut in 1995 through Toy Story 3
in 2010 Pixar enjoyed an unprecedented streak of great films that were also
wildly financially successful. These
films were funny, smartly written and appealed to literally everyone, and were
cast with the best actor for the role, not just the biggest. Somewhere around 2011 Pixar lost their way,
lazily releasing so-so films like mediocre sequels Cars 2 and Monsters
University or the glorified Disney princess movie Brave. Meanwhile, Disney proper, under the
guiding hand of former Pixar chief John Lasseter, was knocking it out of the
park with big CG animated films like Oscar winners Frozen and Big
Hero 6. In 2014 Pixar took its first
year off in almost 2 decades while preparing two new films for release this
year, with the first, Inside Out, opening this past weekend. Could Pixar recapture the magic of pre-2011?

Thankfully, the answer to that question is
"yes". Inside Out is
the creation of original Pixar braintrust member Pete Docter, who also brought
us two of Pixar's most emotionally resonant films, Monsters, Inc. and
the magnificent Up. Inspired by
Docter's own preteen daughter, Inside Out personifies the basic emotions
driving the daily life of 11-year-old heroine Riley: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger,
and Disgust. In true Pixar fashion each
of these has a perfectly chosen voice counterpart (Mindy Kaling nails Disgust,
but more from Bill Hader's Fear and Lewis Black's Anger would have been
nice.) Amy Poehler as Joy and The
Office's Phyllis Smith as Sadness are the centerpiece characters here, and
both (particularly Smith) shine in their roles.
Celebrated character actor Richard Kind gives a scene-stealing
performance as Riley's imaginary friend Bing Bong, and John Ratzenberger also
drops in for his trademark Pixar cameo.

"Look everyone!!! I can read!!"

The heart of any Pixar film is emotion, and even though this
a film that turns complex emotions into cartoon characters the feelings here
are very real and relatable. The film
highlights Riley's struggles to adapt to life in a new town, and dealing with
happy, formative memories suddenly becoming sad ones. Where so many other films would fall into a
trap of becoming maudlin or heavy-handed, Inside Out handles this with
the trademark Pixar velvet touch and brings a very real tear to the eye of even
the most cynical viewer. If there is a
complaint to be had, it's that Inside Out takes a tad bit long to really
get going, but is a wonderful experience once it does.

It would be a bit lazy to speak of Inside Out in
terms of its ranking within the Pixar pantheon, but it is almost certainly
their best by far since Toy Story 3. It
is that perfect balance of funny, heartbreaking, resonant and triumphant that
we've come to expect from Pixar, though it does labor just a bit to get
there. Inside Out is preceded by
a trailer for Pixar's next release, this November's infamously troubled The
Good Dinosaur. While this trailer
didn’t inspire much confidence in Pixar's immediate future (it's worth noting
that Toy Story 4 is also currently in production), at very least Inside
Out reminds us of the magic we've come to love from Pixar, and gives us
hope for more magic to come.